Humberside Geologist no. 10

The University of Hull geological collection has been split up following the closure of the Geology Department. The teaching collection, along with the Upper Cretaceous and Cenozoic material in the research collection, has remained at the University for use in the teaching of geology in the School of Geography and Earth Resources. This includes specimens from the Yorkshire Chalk and local Quaternary material, including the Lewis Penny Collection. Some Mesozoic material from East Yorkshire and surrounding areas has been donated to Hull Museums. This includes the Speeton Clay material upon which Lynden Emery's M.Sc. was based, and a further 2000 Speeton Clay macrofossils from the collection of Professor John Neale. It also includes the Robinson Collection of Yorkshire coast ammonites and the Kellaways bivalves from South Cave and Newbald, which were described by K.G.Walker in his 1972 paper in the Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society. Other reference materials transferred to the Museum included specimens donated by Kenneth Fenton and Felix Whitham. The very rare specimen of the ammonite Hyperliocers rudidiscites from the Cave Oolite of Newbald, is now at the Museum and has been allocated the new accession number: KINCM.1992 145a to c (for the three pieces). All other material in the research collections has been transferred to Oxford University.

The famous 'crab' (or more correctly slipper lobster) found in B or C beds of the Speeton Clay by Richard Edmonds on 13th September 1984, has recently been returned to Hull Museum. Martin Simpson will shortly be describing it as the type (and only known specimen) of a new species of 'Eryon', in a monograph.

The periodicals left to the Society by Dr Hubert Watson, as listed in Humberside Geologist no. 6, page 28, have been donated to Hull Museums. These may be consulted by members of the Society by arrangement with Mike Boyd, at the Museum.

As many members know, our Treasurer Felix Whitham, as well as taking good care of the Society's funds, is a busy amateur geologist. Since his retirement from a career in the motor car trade he has been busier than ever and has been writing up the results of his research. The first part of his major work on Chalk stratigraphy was published in the Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society in 1991 and part two should be published in 1993. He has also contributed to a revision of the Geologists' Association Guide to the geology of the Yorkshire Coast, along with fellow Hull G.S. member Peter Rawson. His talents have at long last been recognised by the geological community. He won second prize in the Geological Collector of the Year competition in 1991, sponsored by the Geologists' Association and the Geological Curators Group. In 1992 he has won a prize for amateur research from the Palaeontological Association and the R.H.Worth prize from the Geological Society. The University of Hull awarded Felix an honorary D.Sc. degree in December 1992.

Professor Michael House, now at Southampton University, won the Murchison Medal of the Geological Society in 1991 for his work on Devonian palaeogeography, facies and faunas, which he has linked to global sedimentary rhythms and orbital forcing. He has also contributed, along with Peter Rawson, to a paper entitled ' A guide to stratigraphic procedure' published in the Journal of the Geological Society (vol. 148).

Patrick Boylan has moved from Leicester Museum to take up the Chair of Arts Policy and Management at City University in London.

Mick Stanley, who worked at Hull Museums in the early 1980s, has returned to the Museum as Principal Keeper, after working for Derbyshire Museums. Mick is the National Co ordinator of the National Scheme for Site Documentation and the Chairman of the Conservation Committee of the Geological Society.

Peter Scott has left Leicester University to take up the Chair of Industrial Geology at the Camborne School of Mines in Cornwall.

Simon Knell has moved from Scunthorpe Museum to Leicester University to teach Museums Studies.

Lynden Emery and Paul Ensom will join the Council of the Yorkshire Geological Society in 1993 and Paul was elected as Chairman of the Geological Curators' Group at their A.G.M. in Scunthorpe in December 1992.

Ted Wright has recently been helping with the excavation of a wooden boat from a building site at Dover. Ted believes the boat to be of a similar design and age as the three boats he found at North Ferriby.

Glenn Brown, a member from Goole, died in May 1991 from an asthma attack and Doug Bridger from Lockington died in September 1992.

RIGGS schemes have been set up in East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. These are schemes to list, survey, register and, if necessary, conserve sites of local Geological and Geomorphological importance. For information about the East Yorkshire scheme contact Mick Stanley at Hull Museums and for the Lincolnshire scheme contact David Robinson of the Lincolnshire Naturalists Trust. Society members Roy and Beryl Osborn have donated copies of the N.C.C. book "Earth Science Conservation in Great Britain - a Strategy" and the "Appendices - a handbook of earth science conservation techniques" to the scheme and these may be borrowed by members via Mick Stanley at Hull Museum.

Hull Museums has also become a local record centre for the National Scheme for Site Documentation. This scheme collects details of all geological sites whether they are SSSIs, RIGGS sites, working or disused quarries or temporary exposures. Members of the Society have donated seventy pounds, in memory of the late Kenneth Fenton, who was keen to see a local record centre established. This has been used towards the cost of a filing cabinet and record cards. Members are encouraged to contribute details of sites that they visit to the Museum, especially notes of temporary exposures. For further information contact Mike Boyd at the Museum.

October 1992 was Yorkshire Geology Month, when 47 special events aimed at introducing members of the public to the geological sciences took place. Museums and geological societies throughout the county planned the events and Paul Ensom of the Yorkshire Museum co-ordinated them and prepared the poster to advertise them, with the aid of grants from COPUS and the Geologists' Association. In Hull there was an exhibition at the Town Docks Museum about the Hyenas of Kirkdale Cave and a display about starting a geological collection, including material from Felix Whitham's collection. There was also a 'Geology Roadshow' at the Museum, where an 'expert panel' of Museum Staff and Society members identified specimens brought in by members of the public. There was also a display from the Geologists' Association, brought from London by Eric Robinson and Sarah Stafford, and a display and demonstrations from the Kingston Lapidary Society.

Jim Darmody and Mike Horne led walks around Spring Bank Cemetery, Mike Boyd and Mike Horne led a boulder survey trip to Hornsea, and Mike Horne and Mick Stanley led a walk around Hull City Centre looking at shop fronts and building stones. Richard Myerscough led walks at Sewerby and Speeton. Eric Robinson visited Hull again on 13th October to give lectures about 'Geology in the City' at the Museum and the University.

Written by Mike Boyd and Mike Horne, December 1992.